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THE CIECULAR AND THE ONWAED MOVEMENT. 



PRES. HOPKINS'S 



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¥l\e Circular ki\d tl]e Oi\\vafd JyIoveir\ei\t. 



BACCALAUREATE SERMON, 



DELITERED AT 



WILLIAMSTOWN, MS 



JUNE 23, 1872 



BY MARK HOPKINS, D. D. 

President of Williams College. 



■^^^S .>^*^ 

^^^^^^0" 



33ubIi3f)eU iv l^cqucst of tl)e Class. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN & SOX, 131 CONGRESS STREET. 

NEW YORK:— SHELDON & COMPANY. 

1872. 






Entered according to Act of Congkess, in the year 1872, by 

T. R. MARVIN & SON, 

in the OflSice of the Librarian of Congress. 



S E E M N 



ECCLESIASTES III. 15. 

THAT WHICH HATH BEEN IS NOW, AND THAT -WHICH 13 TO BE HATH ALREADY 
BEEN ; AND GOD KEQUIBETH THAT WHICH IS PAST. 

We are told by astronomers, that our planetary system has 
two movements ; one circular, by which the motions return upon 
themselves ; and the other, onward in infinite space. By the 
first of these the system is maintained as a system. The cir- 
cling bodies composing it now approach each other, and now 
recede till they return to their first position, thus perpetuating 
from age to age, the mystic dance of the heavens. 

Of these movements, those that are circular can be calculated, 
and in regard to them the astronomer, relying upon the stability 
of the order of nature, may say, " That which hath been is now, 
and that which is to be hath already been." But the onward 
movement can not be calculated. By that the whole system, 
the sun and all his train of planets and secondaries and comets, 
is moving on in space, perhaps in a right line, perhaps around 
some centre at an inconceivable distance ; and of this movement, 
its object and its limit, we know nothing. We have no data 
for calculation, and the mighty secret must rest with God till He 
shall please to reveal it. 

Not unlike these are the two great movements of human life, 
referred to in the text. There is a succession of events, making 



up much of what we call life, constantly beginning, never end- 
ing, which is repeated over and over every generation. There 
is also a progressive movement, both of the individual and of the 
race, which does not return u{)on itself, the objects and limits of 
which are known to man only as it has pleased God to reveal 
them. It is with this latter movement that man is connected 
as responsible under the moral and permanent government of 
God. That which is once past here, is fixed forever, and God 
requireth it. 

It is only as we keep in view these two movements, that we 
have a key to the apparently discrepant assertions of the wise 
man in the book from which the text is taken. Now we hear 
him say that " all things come alike to all ; that " there is one 
event to the righteous and to the wicked." And so, for the 
most part, there is in the circular movement. But again we hear 
him say, " I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, 
which fear before Him ; but it shall not be well with the wicked." 
And so it always is in the onward movement. 

Looking at the circular movement, permanent indeed in its 
successions, yet so transient for the individual, Solomon speaks of 
all things as "vanity and vexation of spirit," and "full of labor." 
And, regarding life in this aspect, how striking are the emblems 
chosen by him to represent it. He compares it to the sun that 
"ariseth, and goeth down, and hasteth again to the place where 
he arose;" to the w^ind "that goeth towards the south, and 
turneth about unto the north, that whirleth about continually, and 
returneth aojain accordino^ to his circuits ;" to the rivers that "are 
taken from the sea, and return again to the place whence they 
arose." But not so 'does he speak when he surveys the whole of 
life. Looking also at the onward movement and its issues, he 
condenses all wisdom into one brief utterance, and says, " Let 
us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and 
keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 



For God will bring every work into judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." " God 
requireth that which is past." 

It is, my beloved Friends of the Graduating Class, as we are 
brought within the sweep of this circular, or, if you please, iter- 
ated movement, that w^e are here to-day. It is under this move- 
ment that the generations come and go, each another, and yet 
the same. In its great features the succession of events is recur- 
rent, and " That which hath been is now." To those who went 
before us there were the same senses and the same gifts of intel- 
lect as to us. Their eyes beheld the same sun ; they watched 
the same seasons as they came and went ; the trees, the moun- 
tains, the streams, the flying clouds, the blue sky, the stars of 
night, were the same to them as to us. There was to them the 
same period of helpless, ignorant infancy ; of curious, wondering, 
wayward childhood ; of inexperienced and perilous youth, and 
then the time came, which among some ancient nations was cele- 
brated as a festival, when the manly robe was .put on, and they 
were committed to their own guidance. This event cannot now 
be signalized in regard to all. A single ship sails without notice ; 
but when a fleet, bearing a cargo that is precious to the com- 
munity, puts to sea, the harbor is lined. So when a single per- 
son takes his position in society, it excites no attention, but when 
a number of young men, trained at a public institution, come 
together to the verge of active life, society feels that it has some- 
thing at stake, interest is awakened, and it has not been thought 
too solemn to invoke upon them, and in his house, the special 
blessing of God ; and to charge them, in the name of the Church, 
and of the State, whose hope they are, to be vigilant, and wise, 
and faithful in the trust that is committed to them. 

In accordance with this view and impression, young men have 
come up here for a long series of years to receive from their 



instructors parting advice and benediction. And, " That which 
hath been is now." Yes, my Friends, your turn has now come. 
You stand where others have stood before you, and the same 
doubts, and hopes and fears that agitated them now agitate you. 
The same veil of futurity that once rested over their prospects, 
now rests over yours. Can that veil be raised? In some 
measure it may, for we are told in the text, not only that that 
which hath been is now,' but that that which is to be hath already 
been. 

In illustrating this part of the subject I observe. First, that it is 
to be with you as it has already been with those who have gone 
before you, in the diminution of your numbers by death, and in 
the physical changes that are to pass upon you. 

It has been in time past that one and another from the classes 
that have graduated has been arrested in his career at no distant 
period, and has found an early grave. And so it will be with 
some of you. The ranks of no number equal to yours can long 
remain unbroken. By consumption, by fever, by accident, 
slowly, or suddenly, the grasp of the destroyer will be fixed upon 
you. And can it be that to any of you the bright morning shall 
be overcast, and your sun go down before it is noon? Ah, if we 
could but know whose eye must first be dim, whose heart first 
cease to beat, whose account must first be rendered up I We 
can not know, but there is One who does, and the days may be 
few that shall reveal the fearful secret to the startled conscious- 
ness of him who least expects it. Thus one will go, and then 
the time of another, and of another will come. Meanwhile the 
finger of Time will begin to trace its furrows upon the brow of 
those of you who remain, and his hand to scatter its frosts upon 
your heads. You will see another generation coming up to take 
your places, and will think it wonderful how fast they come. 
You will begin to be called old men, and be surprised at it ; you 



will begin to be old men, till the stars shall thicken along the 
line of your catalogue, and the last man shall be left alone bend- 
ing with years, and tottering upon the brink of the grave. 

In view, then, of the certainty of death, and the uncertainty of 
the time, lay no plan of life into which provision for it as possible 
at any time, does not enter. 'Watch, for you know not at 
what hour the house may be broken through.' 

And as there are. physical clianges which are common and 
inevitable to the race, so also there are mental changes. 

It has been said that when the mind takes its own course, the 
ruling passion in youth is pleasure, in middle life fame, and in 
old age avarice. And probably, if the character be not formed 
on fixed principles under the moral government of God, some 
such change of object does usually take place. Certainly as age 
comes on the ardor of the passions will cool, the imagination will 
be chastened, and the judgment will predominate more. Then 
the power of habit will reveal itself more strongly. Your 
thoughts, your feelings, your associations, your pursuits will run 
on in settled courses that will not easily be broken up. The 
metal now so ready to fluctuate and so impressible, will harden, 
and will be taking its final impress for eternity. As the body 

decays so will the mind, or seem to, just as the sun seems to be 

« 
going out when the cloud thickens before him. First, the per- 
ceiving faculties will fail, then the memory, then the judgment, 
and then second childhood will have come. 

Whether it is desirable for any one to reach this point God 
only knows, but they are to be pitied who do reach it, having 
earned no title to the respect and love of those who come after. 

I observe, again, that it is to be with you as it has already 
been with those who have gone before you, in your failure to 
carry out your plans of life. 

Young men generally form to themselves some plan of life, 



8 

and this is right, but it should be only in a general way. The 
two forces by which the direction of human life is determined, 
and which act and react upon each other, are the human will, 
and the course of events. But the course of events is under 
the control of God, and it is by means of this that "He turneth 
the hearts of men as the rivers of water are turned." So influ- 
ential, indeed, is this, that the Prophet could say, " I know, O 
Lord, that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." By 
the course of events God can hedge up your way in any partic- 
ular direction ; He can take off the chariot wheels of your ambi- 
tion, and can open to you new and unexpected vistas of hope 
and of effort. Few are there, much advanced in life, who can- 
not look back to unexpected events that have so become turning 
points in their lives that they have been led in a way that they 
knew not. 

And so, doubtless, it will be with you. ^Vhile, therefore, you 
heed duly the fixed course of God's providence, and use vigor- 
ously your faculties in studying its indications, falling into no 
indolence or imbecility as those do who wait for things to turn 
up, you are yet not to map the future with unchanging lines. 
Mistake not for a long line of coast, the head-land that may 
round you into another sea. Go up no hill before you come to 
it. Live in the spirit of the petition which asks for daily bread. 
Thus doing, the failure to carry out your plans may be the 
source, not only of no regret, but of thankfulness and joy. 

These things have been in time past ; they w^ill be in time to 
come. They do not depend upon chance, or the will of man, 
but upon the settled laws of Divine Providence. There are, 
however, other things which " have been " so universally that 
we expect them with almost the same certainty as the rising of 
the sun, and yet we see no necessity for them. Of these it may 
be said, as our Saviour said of offences, 'it must needs be that 
they come, but wo to the man by wdiom they come.' We may 






certainly expect them, but they may be avoided by each indi- 
vidual. 

Judging, then, from the past, it will be that some of you will 
so far find in the circular movement the chief objects of study 
as to become one-sided and narrow. 

It is the circular movement that is the ground and sphere of 
science ; and as we found in the two movements a key to the 
seeming discrepancies in the book of Ecclesiastes, so do we find 
in them a key to the alleged want of harmony between science 
and religion. Science, that is, natural science, which alone is in 
question here, has its basis in those works of God which are the 
expression of his natural attributes, as hjs intelligence and power, 
and which reveal themselves in the circular movement. Re- 
liorion, on the other hand, has for its basis the moral attributes of 
God, which find their scope and distinctive sphere in the onward 
movement. The harmony, therefore, between science and religion 
must be, and must ultimately be found to be, just as perfect as 
it is between the natural and the moral attributes of God. 

In science, as based on the circular movement, the instruments 
are observation, experiment, and experience. Making use of 
these, and assuming the uniformity of nature, science claims the 
right to proceed outwards in space, and from that which is here, 
and can be observed, to affirm uniformity of agency and of struc- 
ture where observation cannot go. It also claims, and on the 
same ground, to proceed onwards in time, and from that which 
is observed now, to affirm uniformity of succession in events yet 
to come. And this is all that natural science can do. It knows 
of force, stability, order, uniformity; it bases itself on these, but 
of a Being back of all, of a cause, of uniformity with a purpose 
and as the result of will, it knows nothing. Of a miracle, of 
anything free and supernatural, it knows and can know nothing. 
These are, indeed, the very things that modern science seeks to 
ignore and exclude. 



10 

Religion, on the other hand, has revelation in the place of 
observation and experience ; and, as has been said, has the moral 
attributes of God finding their distinctive sphere in the onward 
movement, for its basis. It is within this sphere that we find 
occasion for the supernatural. Indeed, the movement itself is 
supernatural. To this the circular movement, nature, uniform, 
improgressive, necessitated, is wholly subordinate. It is but as 
the staging to the building, the theatre to the drama, the field to 
the battle. Therefore any, the least miracle for a moral pur- 
pose, is of higher significance than the whole of nature as indi- 
cating the presence and supremacy of a personal being who is 
other than nature, and is its Lord. The harmony, therefore, of 
the natural with the supernatural, and so of science with religion, 
will be found in the subordination of the lower to the hiaher : 
and when this subordination shall be seen to be complete, the 
harmony of science with religion will be perfect, and not till then. 

But if this be so, how obvious is it that those who recognize 
only the lower movement must be one-sided and narrow. Nor 
is this always the w^orst. Not a few votaries of mere science, 
especially positivists, become not only narrow, but bitter, and 
make it their special function to stand at the entrance of the 
paths to the higher knowlege and scoflP at those who would enter 
in. While, therefore, you give science its proper place, and that 
a high place, you will not, I trust, fail to find enlargement and 
completeness in that which is higher. 

But if there is danger that you will find within the circular 
movement the sole objects of the intellect, much more is there 
that you will find in connection vrith that the sole objects of aflTec- 
tion and of choice. Not apprehending rightly the relation 
between the circular and the onward movement, it is greatly to 
be feared that some of you will either pursue some phantom that 
cannot be grasped, or will grasp that which will turn to ashes in 
your hand. Then will come disappointment, and a temper irri- 



11 

tatecl against Providence, and soured towards the world. Then 
the chill and the gloom for which nature knows of no morning, 
will begin to set in. 

So has this been with many in the past. Shall it be so with 
you ? Shall not the experience of the past benefit you ? Do you 
not live in the nineteenth century, after two hundred generations of 
men with their hopes and fears and follies have come and gone, 
and shall you be no wiser for witnessing the things that have 
been ? Most obvious is it that mankind as a race, have not been 
thus made wiser. Is not vanity as much enamored of itself as 
it was at the beginning ? Are the votaries of fashion, and the 
slaves of conventional forms, diminished in number? Is the 
race of mere pleasure-seekers coming to an end ? Do not young 
men start in the race of ambition, and strive to be great men as 
much as if there had not been a great man in every town and 
neighborhood since the time of the flood ? Is not unhappiness 
still imputed to the condition in life rather than to the moral 
state? And hence, do not men still say, " when we have removed 
such an inconvenience, have attained such an object, we shall be 
happy " ? Are there more than of- old who come to a pause in 
all this, and deliberately say to themselves, as most men might, 
" so far as worldly good is concerned, I am as happy now as I 
can expect to be. Having food and raiment, I will therewith 
be content." Is there less than formerly of insane disregard of 
death, and judgment, and eternity? In all these respects the 
experience of others seems to do the mass of men little more 
good than it does the fishes and the birds ; for, " as the fishes 
that are taken in an evil net, and the birds that are caught in 
the snare, so," even yet, "are the sons of men snared in an evil 
time, when it falleth suddenly upon them." Notwithstanding 
the experience of the past, when the necessary result of their own 
conduct reaches them, when the net comes over them, it comes 
suddenly ; they are amazed ; they supposed that they should 



12 

escape. But shall this be so with you ? You may succeed in 
the lower sense of that word. You may become rich ; may come 
to be the first man in a village, or a member of Congress, or 
the Governor of a State, or the President of the United States, 
and may suppose yourselves to be engaged, as ten thousands 
have before you, in the most important and momentous concerns 
that have ever transpired. But, however high you may rise, you 
will be borne up by a wave that has risen quite as high before, 
and when it subsides it will strand you where it has stranded 
others, and leave you to neglect, while the popular gaze is wait- 
ing for him who is to succeed you. Thus have all schemes of 
life based on the circular movement, failed hitherto. They must 
in the time to come. " The thing that hath been, it is that which 
shall be." 

Do I, then, disparage the world? Far from it. It is God's 
world. He made it : not in mockery of his creatures, or for 
their disappointment, but for their use. It is just such a world 
as is adapted to man in his present condition ; and, so viewed, 
every creature in it is good. It is marvelous in its adjustments 
and in its provisions. It is pleasant to live in it. It is pleasant 
to behold the sun, to investigate truth, to feel the glow and 
warmth of the domestic and social affections, to be in sympathy 
with the interests and struggles of our humanity in this transient 
state, and to work for its advancement. The world is good for 
what it was intended to be ; but an inn is not a home. It is no 
disparagement of it to say so ; and when he who would make it 
one is disappointed, it is his own fault. If the world shall dis- 
appoint you,. it will be your own fault. It will be because you 
attempt to make of it what He did not intend it should be ; and 
what you may know, if you will, that He did not intend it should 
be.- The great mistake of men is, that they do not rightly adjust 
their plans to the relation between the circular and the onward 
movement. That relation here, as in the intellect and in science, 



» 



13 

is one of subordination. Here the law of limitation comes in and 
gives you your key. Make as much as you will of the objects 
and interests of the circular movement if you do but so sub- 
ordinate them to those of the onward movement -that they shall 
contribute in the highest degree to the interests involved in that. 
This it is that Christianity would teach you to do ; and in thus 
harmonizing the two movements to reach the highest results 
possible in connection with each. The circular movement is 
subordinate. It was intended to be. If that movement were 
all ; if life were but the same round over and over ; we might 
well go about, as Solomon did when he looked at it in this 
aspect, to cause our hearts to despair of all the labor that we 
take under the sun. But that is not all, — 

«' 'Tis not the whole of life to live, 
Nor all of death to die. " 

There is an onward movement in which that which hath been, 
is not now ; and that which is now, shall never be again. It is 
that which gives to life its dignity. Connected with that are the 
higher hopes, the nobler purposes, and the supreme end of 
man. 

And here there opens to us the grandest subject of thought in 
the universe of God, It might seem, when we dwell upon 
infinite space that has no centre and no circumference, and upon 
those worlds of light within it which the night reveals, and upon 
those myriads more which the telescope calls up, that the feel- 
ing of grandeur must arise to its highest point. But no ; 
that all belongs to the circular movement. It is but matter 
and its forces, — the domain of mere science, with no power to 
reveal anything outside of itself, or above itself. View it as you 
will, investigate it as you will, and what can any progress man 
may make in the knowledge of processes and results within this 
movement amount to ? Progress ! Is not death a part of this 
2 



u 

same movement? and is not all progress here accompanied hj a 
progress towards that ? 

Yes, Death ! That is a word at the sound of which science 
is dumb. Here is a man standing under the array which night 
reveals. By his side is a new-made grave. He has come there 
to mourn ; and pointing to that grave, and looking up, he asks 
of the blue depths, and of the starry hosts, — " What dues that 
mean ? " The heavens do not hear him ; the depths and the stars 
are silent ; no telescope can pierce so far as to read an answer. 
Turning, then, from these vast spaces and forces to that opposite 
sphere of science, where she delves and peers, and seems to be 
seeking for that nothing out of which all things were made, 
and pointing to the same grave, he asks the microscope, and the 
crucible, and the retort, — "What does that mean?" and they 
make no reply. Then, looking around, and below, and above 
him, he cries out, — " O, thou mysterious circling, pitiless, all- 
engulphing Nature, speak. What does that mean?" And the 
moon glides on in her course, and the stars shine, and " there is 
no voice nor any that regardeth." But who is this that has 
heard the question, not of this man only, but of humanity, and 
stands by his side? He wears the form of a man, but his words 
imply the resources of omnipotence, and He says, — " Thy brother 
shall rise again." "I am the resurrection and the life : he that 
liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." Now Nature and 
its laws, matter and its forces, death and its terrors, are under 
our feet. We have now found Him "who has abolished death, and 
brought life and immortality to light." Now, being lifted above 
the circular movement, and released from the bonds of neces- 
sity, we come up into the region of freedom and of personality. 
Now we find a personal God ; now a universe, not merely strewn 
with suns and planets, fixed, or in orderly movement, but peo- 
pled with intelligences in the likeness of God, — an innumerable 
company of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. 



15 

Now we reach the true sublimities ; now the onward move- 
ment. 

As has been said, the onward movement connects itself with 
the moral government of God, and with man as responsible. It 
is within this that we find the supernatural. Within this, and 
as a part of it, we find miracles. Here, also, we find prophecy, 
properly so called. Science can prophecy, but only within her 
own domain. She can tell us that the sun will rise to-morrow, 
and can predict an eclipse. She can even foretell the weather, 
because "the wind returneth again according to his circuits," but 
she could not foretell the coming of Christ, nor his crucifixion, 
nor his resurrection and ascension ; nor does she now know any- 
thing of the time of his second coming, or of his coming at all. 
It was as a part of this movement, and wholly in its interest, 
that Christ came ; and He is its central figure. This precludes 
comparison between him and any philosopher. Except as a con- 
dition of something higher and as holding it in subjection, he 
had nothing to do w^ith the circular movement. As that move- 
ment is known by science and controlled by its methods, he had 
nothing to do with it. His method of knowledge within it was 
not induction, but insis^ht : his method of control w^as not throus^h 
law, but through will manifesting itself in miracle. He simply 
said to one and another of the elements and forces of nature, as 
the centurion said to his servant, " Go," and it went; "Come," 
and it came. For Him. to have discovered, or to have propounded 
scientific methods, or to have controlled nature after the manner 
of science, would have been a degradation. With Him every 
thing was on another plane, and only as his miracles were sub- 
servient to the interests within the onward movement, to the 
establishment of truth within that, and to moral progress, are 
they lifted practically above juggleries and mere wonders. 

Moral progress — character, a character radically right, and 
then improvement in that — this gives us progress in connection 



16 

■with a movement that turns not back upon itself, tliat always 
records itself, and in which the past ia always required. It is to 
this progress that I wish to call your special attention in this 
parting hour, and concerning it, I have three things to eay. 

The first is, that it is the only progress worth making ; or, at 
least, that without this all other progress is relatively worthless. 

The second is, that this progress will draw after it all other 
progress, and make it permanent ; and that nothing else can. 
And just here it is that we find the special wisdom and glory 
of Christ, in that while he seems to ignore science and art, 
and in a sense to disregard the interests of the circular move- 
ment, he yet initiated and put himself at the head of a movement 
that has but to become universal to draw within its sweep the 
most rapid and only permanent progress in all things else. 
The planets follow the sun. The greater includes the less, the 
higher the lower. In that saying of his, " Seek ye first the king- 
dom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be 
added unto you," there is not only the sum of religion, but more 
of philosophy than in all heathendom. It shows a knowledge of 
the structure of God's universe from foundation to turret ; and 
of its administration from the beo^innino: throug^hout all a^i^es. 
Moral progress must take the lead. This is Christ's method. 
With this, progress in all else will follow ; will be permanent and 
perpetual. Without this, the generations will but perform the 
labor of Sisyphus. When a given point is reached there will be 
retrogression. Itself the one thing needful, it involves the wis- 
dom and method of all reform that can avail much; and when 
reformers learn this, and begin at home, the wheels of progress 
will begin to revolve rapidly, and their grating and jarring, now 
so dissonant, will cease. 

The third thing which -I wish to say is, that as this progress 
must be through Christ's method, so also must it be through his 
power and leadership. He must be recognized as the head of 



17 

the race. He is its head. For all who shall fulfill, and, under 
Him, more than fulfill the destiny of our original humanity, He 
is the second Adam ; and the one thing needed by those who 
would make progress in the onward movement, is a personal 
relation to Him, through which they may receive His guidance 
and aid. For the race in its anticipations of a happier future 
on earth, no less than for the individual in the great future, He 
must be " the Captain of our salvation." Without Him we can 
do nothing. 

In connection with what social or physical convulsions this 
progress is to go forward, or whether in quietness, we can know 
only from revelation. Unaided by that, we find ourselves, in our 
attempt to take the bearings of this onward movement, without 
a chart in the open sea. It is all sky above with no polar star, 
and all ocean below. Respecting this movement science knows 
nothing. But from revelation we do know, whatever may inter- 
vene, that there is to come at some point an arrest to the present 
order of things, a solution of the perplexing problems connected 
with it, and a new adjustment on the basis of a final separation 
of the righteous and the wicked. It is by revelation alone that 
Ave know the astronomy of the moral heavens, and that the move- 
ment of our whole system is towards a day of reckoning and a 
judgment seat. Upon that seat, — the throne of His glory, — we 
know that He will be seated who was once crowned with thorns, 
and that " before Him shall be gathered all nations." We shall 
be there ; and God will require of each one of us that which is 
past. 

To me, whose oflJicial life is now closing, and the close of 
whose natural life cannot be distant, the thought of this respon- 
sibility, in the onward movement, is especially solemn as I 
look back. O, how much that needs to be forgiven ! How 
much that might have been more wisely, and faithfully and 
better done ! But for you, while the thought must indeed have 



18 

solemnity as you look back, yet, entering as you are upon life, 
^vitll tlic power to make of that which is to be your past what 
you please, it will, perhaps, have more solemnity as you look to 
the future. The past which you will thus make, you will look 
back upon without regret in proportion as you subordinate, in 
accordance with the doctrine of this discourse, the circular to 
the onward movement, — as you seek first the kingdom of 
God. 

Nor, if you understand the relation of these two movements 
as Christianity presents them, will the doing of this diminish 
your interest in any thing that pertains to the lower and circular 
movement. Here, again, it is the glory of Christianity, and a 
demonstration of its truth, that it so brings these two movements 
into harmony, that, while it presents in the strongest possible 
light the vanity of passing objects and scenes considered as an 
end, it does not lessen our interest or activity in them. Not 
only, as has been said, does Christianity make the most of the 
two movements in their result, — so that we gain our lives by 
losing them, — it also makes the most of them as they call forth 
our energies, so that we become more active in the duties of 
time as we care less for its objects. It makes us more "diligent 
in business" as we become " fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." 
It is thus tliat all human employments may become equal in the 
sight of God, for He regards them as there is manifested 
through them a purpose and temper that conspire with the 
onward movement of his moral government. Whatever stands 
related to that, and as it stands thus related, has grandeur in it. 
What man is this who is so earnestly at work in the very humble 
employment of making a fine powder still more fine by constant 
attrition? It is Michael Angelo, grinding the paints with which 
he is to paint for eternity. The humble duties must be done ; 
the paints must be ground ; but they will be ground all the better 
if we feel that we are to paint for eternity with them. There 



19 

are duties towards God, indispensable, the highest of all, but 
they can never be acceptably performed in the willful disregard 
or neglect of any duty toward man. You are never to forget 
that the best preparation for heaven is in that character which 
will fit you for the greatest usefulness on earth. 

Since, then, the problems, — the great problems in life, — that 
come from the intersection and blending of the circular and 
onward movements are solved theoretically by Christianity ; and 
since, through that, you can make the most, practically, of the 
interests involved in each movement, the one thing needful for 
you is to be Christians. At this hour, when you are about to 
step into active life, and when so many voices are calling you, 
the one voice which you are to hear is that of Him, who^says, — 
"Follow Me." Hear that voice, and then you will take your 
places under His banner by the side of those who are waging 
with Him the great battle of all time. It is around Him that 
the thick of this battle has always been. Around Him it always 
will be. Take, then, your places. You are needed. The 
veterans are falling. Who shall take their places ? The strong 
men are fainting. Who shall succor them? Go ye, and the 
earth shall be better and happier for your having lived in it. Go ; 
and when the time of your departure shall come, you will be able 
to say what he said who has been a standard-bearer in this Col- 
lege for more than forty years, and for whom both its chapel 
and this desk are now draped in mourning. When consciously 
dying, and but just able to speak, he said, — " If we view it scrip- 
turally, death is but stepping out of one room in our Father's 
house into another ; and, in this instance, without doubt, into a 
larger and pleasanter room." 

And now, my beloved Friends, the time has come, when, in 
some respects, that which has been is to be no longer. Not 
only is the peculiar and most pleasant relation which has existed 



20 

between us the past year to cease, but also the relation which I 
have so long held to this College. During the thirty-six years 
of that relation I have failed but twice, once from sickness, and 
once from absence, to address each successive class as I now 
address you. Hereafter other classes will come, another voice 
will address them, the circular movement will go on, but you 
and I now pass on in the onward movement, you to your work, 
and I to what remains to me of mine. Behind us is that past, 
fixed forever, which God will require. Before us — what? Defi- 
nitely I know not ; but I do know that there is One above u» 
whom we may safely trust. I do know that " God is Love." 
Whatever else I hold on to, or give up, I will hold on to that. 
That I will not give up. To the God of Love, therefore, who 
has hitherto been so much better to me than my fears, do I com- 
mit myself; to the God of Love do I commend you, every one 
of you, praying that in all your pilgrimage He will bless you 
and keep you, that He will make his face shine upon you and be 
gracious unto you, that He will lift up his countenance upon 
you, and give you peace. 






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